TPT Lessons

TPT Letters

TPT Art Resource

Kindergarten - you either love them or cringe at the sound of their class coming down the hallway.
Fortunately for me the kindergarten classes at my new school have been fantastic so far! I think the big game changer for me was going from having 34-36 kindergarteners in my class at one time (with no para of course) to only 20-24. WHHHATTTTT?! I know, I know. AMAZINGGG. I can actually teach!!
As I've mentioned in a previous post, I am at a brand new elementary school this year so I had to come up with some lessons that I could teach with minimal supplies. So this is what I came up with for kindergarten.I now see them for 2-3 days in a row. 20 days altogether by the end of the year.Day One:
Intro to Mrs. Nguyen's art class. We go over the rules, I introduce them to class dojo, I let them wander around my classroom, and I tell them a couple things about myself. After I assign their seats (2 boys, 2 girls at each table) they get a piece of paper and are asked to write their name and draw a picture of themselves with their family.

Day Two:
We begin by reading the book "Lines that Wiggle" by Candace Whitman. As I read I have my students follow along by drawing the lines they see in the book with their finger in the air (we wiggle our fingers first so we don't cramp up). ;)Afterwards I draw some lines on a sheet of paper being projected by my ladybug and ask students to try to identify them (I draw a straight, wavy, zig-zag, diagonal, spiral, and broken line). Then I have my kinders stand up and we all do some body movements that represent each line while saying its name (I'll post pictures or a video clip within the next couple days so you can see how cool I look! haha).Then I have my students go back to their seats and try to draw the lines we talked about on a sheet of paper.
Once they are done drawing them I have them return to the carpet and we read "I'm the Best Artist in the Ocean" by Kevin Sherry. After reading it I flip through the pages and examine the illustrations with my students. What lines do they see?
We also talk about the expressions on the sea creature's faces. One of the squid drawings look very happy. How can you tell it is happy? What types of lines do you see? Then we talk about the angry looking fish. How can you tell they are angry? What types of lines do you see?
I make sure to point out that it is the shape of the mouth and the shape of the eyes (or rather eye brows) that make up most of the facial expression.
Then on a sheet of paper (once again under my ladybug) I draw some super simple squids and have students tell me what feelings their facial expressions show. We do different combinations of happy or sad mouths with eyebrows that are slanted diagonally up or down.
Students then go back to their tables and try to draw as many different expressions as they can!

I get that 'evil' isn't really a feeling. But diabolical seemed like too big of a word.

Day Three:
We begin by reading "Mouse Shapes" by Ellen Stoll Walsh and talk about all the shapes we see in the book. Then we quickly discuss the differences between a line and shape. A line has a beginning and an end while a shape is enclosed.
Then we talk about how we can arrange shapes together to create larger images (basically an into to mosaics). I use a tub of math pattern blocks to demonstrate.
I also show students the various ways they can use different shapes to create a hexagon (2 trapezoids, 3 parallelograms (I just call them diamonds with them), or 6 triangles)!
Then students go back to their tables with a bucket of pattern blocks and a printed pattern block puzzle sheet. I found these AMAZINGLY awesome printable pattern blocks sheets from 'Jessica's Corner of Cyberspace.' The kids love them and it challenges them to manipulate their blocks so that they fit correctly. They also have to work carefully to not bump their paper (or the blocks move).
Once the kids finish their own sheet, they clear it and then switch papers with a partner.
My AP came in during this lesson and was super impressed at how engaged my kinders were!

Can't wait until I get more supplies in so we can really dig in and make some art!

Just wanted to share a couple more pieces of artwork with you guys and tell you about my extension activity.

'M' into a spider. I was just so impressed that this student thought of making it into a spider!

'Q' into another cute turtle. :)

"D" into a dinosaur. THIS IS FIRST GRADE PEOPLE!!!

As students finished their artwork.. I gave them the 'Alphabet Challenge.' They got a piece of paper with all the letters of the alphabet on it and were instructed to add a creative drawing to as many letters as they could by the end of class.
I got a couple of really cute pieces! :)

Today was day one of week three and man oh man has it been interesting so far (aside from a kindergartener throwing up on my brand new carpet today)!

As many of you know I started at a brand new school this year - so I've had to start from scratch with my art program! I'm not sure why I just expected that the county would give me additional money for start up supplies (scissors, rulers, etc.)... cauuuuseee that didn't happen. In fact every art teacher in our county lost $50 each from our consumable budgets! :/

Sooo $400 for 1,200 kids? Awesome. Fortunately for me I have a pretty awesome principal who seems sympathetic to my position.

So when day one rolled around and I still didn't have my county money, I had to rely on my own wallet for supplies. I bought some printer paper, crayons, colored pencils, and markers and started brainstorming for lessons.

After much thought I landed on 'Creative Letter Drawings' for my 1st graders (a lesson I learned from my supervising teacher during student teaching).

I started by reading the book "Louise Loves Art" by Kelly Light. The book is about a little girl who creates her greatest masterpiece (a drawing of her cat) but then her little brother cuts it up and makes it into something else (his greatest masterpiece). Then we talked about the idea of taking something and transforming it into something else.

Thats when I told my students that I was going to give them a letter of the alphabet and it was their job to turn it into something else (I suggested an animal).

After drawing an example on the board, my students got to work!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE their creativity!!

*Some of these are not yet complete - but I just couldn't wait to post about it!

'H' into a cat.

'X' into a dog.

'V' into an owl.

'P' into a pig.

'A' into a mouse. A snorkling mouse. A snorkling mouse with cheese in water.